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Temple gunman was white supremacist

Before he strode into a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., with a 9mm handgun and multiple magazines of ammunition, Wade Michael Page played in white supremacist heavy metal bands with names such as Definite Hate and End Apathy.

The bald, heavily tattooed bassist was a 40-year-old Army veteran who trained in psychological warfare before he was demoted and discharged more than a decade ago.

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A day after he killed six worshippers at the suburban Milwaukee temple, fragments of Page’s life emerged in public records and interviews. But his motive was still largely a mystery. So far, no hate-filled manifesto has emerged, nor any angry blog or ranting Facebook entries to explain the attack.

Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards suggested Monday that investigators might never know for certain why the lone attacker targeted a temple full of strangers.

“We have a lot of information to decipher, to put it all together before we can positively tell you what that motive is - if we can determine that,” Edwards said.

Page, who was shot to death by police, joined the Army in 1992 and was discharged in 1998. He was described Monday by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “frustrated neo-Nazi” who had long been active in the obscure underworld of white supremacist music.

Page wrote frequently on white supremacist websites, describing himself as a member of the “Hammerskins Nation,” a skinhead group rooted in Texas that has offshoots in Australia and Canada, according to the SITE Monitoring Service, a Maryland-based private intelligence firm that searches the Internet for terrorist and other extremist activity.

In online forums, Page promoted his music while interacting with other skinheads. He posted 250 messages on one site between March 2010 and the middle of this year, and appeared eager to recruit others. In March 2011, he advertised for a “family friendly” barbecue in North Carolina, extolling those online to attend.

“If you are wanting to meet people, get involved and become active, then you really need to attend,” he wrote, according to SITE. “Stop hiding behind the computer or making excuses.”

In November, Page challenged a poster who indicated he would leave the United States if Herman Cain were elected president, writing in reply, “Stand and fight, don’t run.”

In an April message, Page said: “Passive submission is indirect support to the oppressors. Stand up for yourself and live the 14 words,” a reference to a common white supremacists mantra.

Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the law center, a nonprofit civil rights organization in Montgomery, Ala., said Page played in groups whose often sinister-sounding names seemed to “reflect what he went out and actually did.” The music talked about genocide against Jews and other minorities.

In a 2010 interview, Page told a white supremacist website that he became active in white-power music in 2000, when he left his native Colorado and started the band End Apathy in 2005. The band’s MySpace page listed the group as based in Nashville, N.C.

Page joined the military in Milwaukee in 1992 and was a repairman for the Hawk missile system before switching jobs to become one of the Army’s psychological operations specialists assigned to a battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C.

As a “psy-ops” specialist, Page would have trained to host public meetings between locals and American forces, use leaflet campaigns in a conflict zone or use loudspeakers to communicate with enemy soldiers.

He never deployed overseas in that role, Army spokesman George Wright said.

Page was demoted in June 1998 for getting drunk while on duty and going AWOL, two defense officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information about the gunman.

Page also received extra duty and was fined. The defense officials said they had no other details about the incident, such as how long Page was gone or whether he turned himself in.

Readers' Comments (9)

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has further links on Stormfront to Wade Michael Page's End Apathy, which had a Stormfront account out of Milwaukee, WI since 2008, which Page used to promote his band at other racist events. Some Stormfront supporters praised the killings and Stormfront "Chief of Staff" "Jack Boot" wrote that "they're asking for it."

Stormfront members have been convicted for past terrorist plots, including a plot to kill 88 African Americans and Barack Obama. I urge the news media to continue to research the Stormfront links of individuals actively praising and promoting terrorist violence. This is NOT the first time.http://www.realcourage.org/cat... /> http://www.realcourage.org/201...

It is the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) which is making the white supremacisy accusation. I would not trust their words as they are left wing hate group which cheerleads for illegal aliens. They accuse anyone who disagrees with them of being a white supremacist. They have an axe to grind and should not be trusted.

Lets wait and see what proper investigation turns up. Playing with a certain band and having a tattoo should not condemn one. It is odd that the SPLC condemn him for having a 9.11 tattoo but don't condemn hispanics for their gang tattoos.

I am extremely disheartened that no white christians are speaking out against these insane acts. The christian religion must prove itself to be one of peace in the aftermath of these acts of right-wing christian terrorism. I call on all good peace-loving christians to denounce this act of domestic terrorism. The credibility of your religion hangs in the balance, and your silence is deafening!

A very popular argument by the Right is say that the Nazis were Leftwing, when in fact they were Rightwing in both Germany and the United States.

The Nazis were pro-Christian, anti-communist, certainly anti-Marxist, imprisoned atheist and labor leaders--that sounds right-wing to me! So since the Nazis embraced the Catholic Church (and the Church embraced Hitler), should we call Christianity fascist? And why did the Nazis view "liberals" as their enemy?

In America, German Fascism dazzled many American leaders of capitalist industry. They were William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Kennedy(JFK’s father), Charles Lindbergh, John Rockefeller, Andrew Mellon(head of Alcoa, banker, and Secretary of Treasury), DuPont, General Motors, Standard Oil (now Exxon), Henry Ford, ITT, Allen Dulles (later head of the CIA), Prescott Bush (don’t forget him), National City Bank, and General Electric.

Hmm. Time to take the story off the front pages. Deranged college kids are great fun when they kill people at random, but we can't have people linking right-wing extremism to the mass murder of brown people, now can we?

You don't understand we need more guns rather than less. When I go to church I make sure to bring my Glock; my son always carries the semi-automatic, with extra rounds, in case he needs to cover me,,,,